1Massachusetts Institute of Technology,2CLO Virtual Fashion *Joint first authors
ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 Conference Proceedings
Starting from a small set of well-studied TPMS metamaterial primitives, we use their implicit
representations and interpolate between them to obtain a rich design space of TPMS structures
exhibiting a wide variation in mechanical performance. To model the complex space of their
behaviors, we physically test their performance and train Deep Ensembles that capture the
uncertainty in prediction and use the results to inform our selection strategy for which designs
to fabricate and test next. We iteratively select batches of designs for 3D-printing and testing
to improve the model and discover new TPMS structures with higher energy dissipation than in known
primitive structures.
Triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) are a class of metamaterials with a variety of applications
and well-known primitive morphologies. We present a new method for discovering novel microscale TPMS
structures with exceptional energy-dissipation capabilities, achieving double the energy absorption
of the best existing TPMS primitive structure. Our approach employs a parametric representation,
allowing seamless interpolation between structures and representing a rich TPMS design space. As
simulations are intractable for efficiently optimizing microscale hyperelastic structures, we propose
a sample-efficient computational strategy for rapid discovery with limited empirical data from
3D-printed and tested samples that ensures high-fidelity results. We achieve this by leveraging a
predictive uncertainty-aware Deep Ensembles model to identify which structures to fabricate and test
next. We iteratively refine our model through batch Bayesian optimization, selecting structures for
fabrication that maximize exploration of the performance space and exploitation of our energy-dissipation
objective. Using our method, we produce the first open-source dataset of hyperelastic microscale
TPMS structures, including a set of novel structures that demonstrate extreme energy dissipation
capabilities, and show several potential applications of these structures.
Applications.
Three potential applications for our discovered hyperelastic TPMS structures: (a) lightweight, thin, flexible and breathable knee padding, (b) a porous
bone implant allowing for cell growth and infiltration, easy to print for patient-specific constraints, and (c) a thin bumper around a robotic vacuum cleaner,
providing lightweight protection.
Primitives.
Unit cells of TPMS primitives used in interpolation to represent the entire design space. Each of these structures shares a periodicity of 2𝜋 in each direction.
Interpolation.
Our designs are obtained as a weighted sum of eight TPMS primitives. Each design cell is fully parameterized with a set of weights. For example, the cell in
the first row is a combination of 40% of Schoen Gyroid and 60% of Schwarz P.
Fabrication.
Fourteen fabricated micro-TPMS structures printed on a Nanoscribe 3D printer and tested using an Alemnis nanoindenter.
Discovered structures.
We present the experimental (blue), predicted (red), and uncertainty (light orange) stress-strain curves for the highest scoring UCB sample in successive
batches. This sample represents the optimal choice suggested by our optimization algorithm for each batch. The predicted curves are generated by a surrogate
model trained on all data up to but excluding the current batch. It is important to note that the y-axis scale of the plots increases to accommodate
the rise in maximum stress as optimization progresses. Initially, our algorithm selects points with high uncertainty to encourage exploration, transitioning
to more exploitative and optimistic points in the later stages.
Principal component analysis projection of metamaterial parameters, with color indicating energy dissipation and labels showing the highest-percentage
TPMS primitive for each structure. Green circles highlight the single TPMS primitives. Structures with the highest percentages of primitives 6 and 8
exhibits the highest energy dissipation, surpassing the performance of those primitives on their own. We highlight a few of our highest-performing
mixture structures and their corresponding highest percentage TPMS primitives.
BibTex
@inproceedings{PerroniScharf:2024:DataEfficientDiscovery,
title = {Data-Efficient Discovery of Hyperelastic TPMS Metamaterials with Extreme Energy Dissipation},
author = {Maxine Perroni-Scharf and Zachary Ferguson and Thomas Butruille and Carlos M. Portela and Mina Konaković Luković},
year = 2025,
booktitle = {{ACM}{SIGGRAPH} 2025 Conference Proceedings},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
series = {SIGGRAPH '25},
numpages = 12,
location = {Vancouver, BC, Canada}
}